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"The face of the operation is Briatore (referred to exclusively in the film by his colleagues and angry, chanting detractors as "Flavio"), an anthropomorphic radish who spends most of his time at QPR plotting to fire all of the managers."

At press time, Harbaugh had sent Michigan’s athletic department an envelope containing a heavily annotated seating chart, a list of the 63,000 seat views he had found unsatisfactory, and a glowing 70-page report on section 25, row 12, seat 9, which he claimed is “exactly what the great sport of football is all about.”

Lots Riding on Today's Production from O

A lot rides on the production of the offense today. M obviously has no chance to win without a significant offensive production. But, larger than that, by this evening, we'll have a lot more information on whether last week was an anamoly (just a bad day) or if last week was the start of a trend. The trend being this offense will not be productive enough against stronger defenses (some have already reached that conclusion off of last weeks singlular data point).

If after todays game, poorer offensive performance appears to be a trend, there will be a lot of negativity and it wil be a long two weeks. Under that scenario, it is hard to imaginve many more wins against B10 non-bottom feeders. I personally don't think today is a "must win", but I do think it is a "must have significant positive offensive showing."

The past is history, the future's a mystery. Being alive in this moment is a gift--that's why they call it the present.

I think last week was a bit deceptive with how our offense moved the ball. Since we didn't have any huge gainers, people assumed our offense didn't move the ball. We really did move the ball but for whatever reason got away from the run (even still ran for 162) and depended on the pass and with that, came mistakes. Granted it wasn't a great performance, it wasn't like MSU completely shut us down -- but having said that, you're right -- today is going to be interesting to see how we bounce back.

Keep in mind that Denard had 2 picks in the inzone and 3 over thrown passes that were sure tds... That is 5 more touchdowns for blue, which means we would have won... The offense worked and will continue to work against big ten opponents, it was just an off day.. On the lighter side of things, I see Michigan pulling out the win today with UM being hungry and Iowa not as prepared for this offensive juggernaut.

I agree with you -- there were many significant missed opportunities last week (interceptions, overthrows, potential big gainers stopped by a shoestring tackle) that would have made a huge difference. I also tend to believe it was an off-week. But the point I tried to make in the OP was that if we miss similar opportunities today, it will become a lot harder to believe last week was just an "off week". You wouldn't expect to have two "off weeks" in a row.

The past is history, the future's a mystery. Being alive in this moment is a gift--that's why they call it the present.

I'm anxious to see how MSU (12:00) play's against a pretty decent Illinois team. I''ll use that as I did last week's "Indiana at Ohio st." as a small indicator of what to expect. Though I do think there's a chance MSU could be as flat as Indiana was last week.

I was at the Iowa game last year. Iowa had a better defense and last year than they do this year. And conversely Michigan's offense is much improved. That said we moved the ball well with Denard running the O at the end of the game. It just makes sense that we would have similar, if not better success, this year on that side of the ball.

“Beer is proof that God loves us and wants us to be happy.” - Benjamin Franklin

Brian mentioned in the preview a feeling that maybe Iowa isn't down with doing anything special to defend the spread. Play the base defense and let er rip. They didn't appear to last year. It was Denard's best game. Let's hope that is the case again.

“First, understanding what their intent is, what our team’s intent is going to be. You’ve got to be willing to work for that. You’ve got to be willing to earn that..." 12-30-2014

lots riding on today's defensive performance? Maybe they can be slightly better than almost the worst in the country today. Showing some improvement in tackling and the like would make a huge impact on the game.

The offense is doing just fine, and even last week we had the yardage but just got derailed by turnovers.

Every time Michigan loses a game everyone want's to jump on the defense and point out how terrible they are. Well I have to put the blame on the offense. If there are no turnovers Michigan wins, if there are turnovers it is a loss.